LONDON – First a ban. Now a bad leg. Just getting to London has been difficult for LaShawn Merritt.

Now that he’s here the question is whether he will be healthy enough to defend his Olympic 400-meter title.

Merritt, who returned to track last season after serving a 21-month drug suspension, is a heavy favorite in the event that starts Saturday.

Or at least he was before hobbling off the track two weeks ago after tweaking his left hamstring in a tuneup race.

“It’s difficult to tell” if Merritt will be completely healthy, his coach, Loren Seagrave, wrote in an email Thursday. Seagrave said Merritt has been resting and rehabbing, and is “much improved and pain free.”

U.S. JUDO COACH Jimmy Pedro brought two backup phones to the Olympics. And when Kayla Harrison delivered the first Olympic gold medal in USA Judo history, all of Pedro’s phones went bonkers with calls and texts from well-wishers.

Pedro was holding an iPhone, which had a steady stream of texts rolling up the screen, so many that Pedro simply couldn’t keep up reading them.

“Everybody and anybody in American judo that has ever touched my life, Kayla’s life or my father’s life,” Pedro said, when asked who’s been calling. “They’ve been waiting for this moment their entire lives.”

IF HELEN MIRREN can’t get Britain’s notoriously rowdy cycling crowd to zip it, who can?

The woman whose icy glare in “The Queen” buckled knees in theaters all over the globe is one of several famous British faces who appears on a quick video that is played sporadically at the Velodrome to quieten the crowd before the start of a race.

Mirren, actor Simon Pegg and musician Gary Barlow are among those shown holding their finger to their lips and giving a loud “Shhhhhh!”

In one of the versions, Mirren is the last face to appear. She leans forward slightly and sternly says, “Button it.”

It’s worked every time.

RUSSIAN GYMNASTS Victoria Komova and Aliya Mustafina said they were pleased with their silver and bronze medals after the women’s all-around competition.

Yet Komova broke into tears when the final scores were posted and shoved her silver medal in her left pocket after the ceremony.

Asked why, she rolled her eyes, and Mustafina said something to her in Russian. Komova said something brief, and a translator replied the medal was in her pocket because “it is heavy.”

LARS FROLANDER, the 38-year-old Swede, failed to advance from the 100-meter butterfly heats but still became the first swimmer to compete in six Olympics.

“I’m really happy and pleased with my career even though I’m not pleased at all with my race this morning,” Frolander said. “I did some big mistakes — a really bad start, a bad turn and a bad finish — but my swimming was the best it’s ever been.”

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